Annual Severe Drought
Strikes France, Again

Bernard Tapie Gets Job
in Order to Get Out of Jail

Paris:- Saturday, 12. April 1997:- Monday
started off with the nearly annual dire prediction of
'Drought Menaces France,' with the sub-heading, 'It Could
be as Bad as 1976.'

As the week wore on, my flippancy wore off as
firefighters, especially in the south and southwest
battled huge forest fires. The fires are earlier than
usual this year, and it is partly because the rains have
been less.

Although there is and was a lot of snow in the Alps,
the runoff has been orderly, with little flooding. Less
rain means less water everywhere throughout the country.
For farmers the situation, if it is not acute now, soon
will be, because the watertable is universally low. In
Essonne, close to Paris, weekend sprinkling has been
restricted, and keepers of golfing greens are worried
about their grass.

Fires raged in southern France
on Saturday.

However, this story seems to be an annual one, and if
we are having dry weather now I think the chance of it
getting wetter before summer, or during summer itself, is
better than fifty-fifty. The hot dry summer in 1976,
which is a recent European reference, started in May and
folded before the end of August. But while it lasted, it
was very hot.

Bernard Tapie is Getting Restless in Jail

Although our favorite businessman and all-round Mr.
Motor is serving hard time he is getting out fairly often
in order to go to court and lose appeals on other
convictions. According to Monday's Le Parisien, he is
also carrying on the political fight against the Front
National from behind bars.

While right-wing majority politicians trade sneers
with each other, Mr. Tapie is planning, upon release, to
go around being a candidate wherever the FN is running,
so he can spoil their chances for majorities. There is no
need to say the man has moxie, so I won't.

At the end of the week, I was quite surprised to hear
that Mr. Tapie has gotten himself a salaried job, and
this will apparently permit him to work outside while
sleeping in the clink at nights.

This measure was opposed by the prosecutor at Aix-en-
Provence on Thursday, but Tapie's attorneys went to a
higher court the following day, and obtained his partial
release. This is in addition to the weekend releases he
has already been granted.

So, who would hire this soon-to-be-ex-convict? Why
none other than the navel architect who transformed Alain
Colas' four-masted 'Club Mediterranée' into
Bernard Tapie's four-masted 'Phocéa' for a measly
68 million francs. Mr. Tapie has a six-month contract to
sell expensive boats.

The irony is, Mr. Tapie still faces court decisions
concerning fiscal frauds surrounding the 'Phocéa,'
which has been seized, and for which auctioneers are
looking for a buyer. I'm pretty sure Mr. Tapie couldn't
afford it even at its knock-down price, but I can't think
of anybody else more suited to sell it. For a sizeable
commission of course.

Juice Up Your Car on the Champs-Elysées

When I took the photo on Friday I didn't know there
was a report in Tuesday's papers about EDF's - the
electricity supplier - plans to install rapid
electric-car pumps around the city. I have noticed the
sign before, just at the entrance to the George V parking
- but I took the photo yesterday, because the sky was
blue, and because the Champs was bedecked with flags.

Apparently there are 149 other kilowatt stations
around the city, but they only deliver 16 amps; taking an
hour to load six or seven kilometres-worth of juice. The
new pumps are 160 amp jobs, and they
can do the trick in 15 minutes, pumping in enough watts
for about 40 kilometres-worth of driving.

Don't
just park your car on the Champs-Elysées, plug it
in too.

Most of the cars and light trucks using electricity
for power, belong to the city or the EDF itself. There
are an estimated 50 private electriccars in use, but
this number may increase as the number of watt-pumps
becomes more widespread.